Working with AutoRest

AutoRest is the name of the tool we use to generate the communication layer that lies beneath the API we expose to our users. AutoRest saves us from having to write a lot of network communication code, and instead we can direct our focus towards building a great user experience on top of this generated code. Our goal should be to expose as little, and ideally none, of the generated code to the user.

Getting started with AutoRest

1. Fork and clone this GitHub repo.

git clone https://github.com/Azure/autorest.java.git

2. Build the package using Maven

mvn clean package -Dlocal

3. Run npm install. You need v10 version of Node.JS installed.
4. Run npm install -g autorest.
5. Run AutoRest commands like this:

To generate code from a local README file:

autorest --java --use=C:\work\autorest.java\ C:\swagger\updated\Blob\readme.md --output-folder=C:\work\azure-sdk-for-java\storage\client\ --namespace=com.azure.storage.blob --sync-methods=none --generate-client-interfaces=false --enable-xml --required-parameter-client-methods

To generate code from a json swagger spec accessed from a URL:

autorest --java --use:./ --input-file=https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Azure/azure-rest-api-specs/master/specification/search/data-plane/Azure.Search/preview/2019-05-06-preview/searchservice.json --namespace=com.azure.search.service --output-folder=generated-code --sync-methods=all --client-side-validations=true --add-context-parameter=true --context-client-method-parameter=true 

AutoRest Options

• Include license header in generated code

Option name: license-header

Option values:

Option Value	Header
MICROSOFT_MIT
MICROSOFT_APACHE
MICROSOFT_MIT_NO_VERSION
MICROSOFT_APACHE_NO_VERSION
MICROSOFT_MIT_NO_CODEGEN
MICROSOFT_MIT_SMALL
MICROSOFT_MIT_SMALL_NO_CODEGEN
NONE

• Namespace

  Option name: namespace

  Option value: Java base package name used for generating the code

• Client side validation

  Option name: client-side-validations

  Default value: false

• Client type prefix

  Option name: client-type-prefix

• Generate client interfaces

  Option name: generate-client-interfaces

• Generate client as implementation type

  Option name: generate-client-as-impl

• Implementation subpackage name

  Option name: implementation-subpackage

• Models subpackage name

  Option name: models-subpackage

• Custom types

  Option name: custom-types

• Custom types subpackage name

  Option name: custom-types-subpackage

• Add context parameter to proxy methods

  Option name: add-context-parameter

• Add context parameter to client methods

  Option name: context-client-method-parameter

• Generate sync and async clients

  Option name: generate-sync-async-clients

• Generate models with required fields as constructor arguments

  Option name: required-fields-as-ctor-args

• Enable xml

  Option name: enable-xml

• Generate fluent interface

  Option name: fluent

• Output folder

  Option name: output-folder

• Input file

  Option name: input-file

Notes:

1. --use=<path to your autorest.java clone>
2. If the input is a JSON spec, use --input-file=<local path of URL of JSON file>, if it's a README.md file, remove --input-file=
3. --enable-xml --required-parameter-client-methods are not needed for services other than Storage
4. autorest --reset to remove all extensions; or autorest --version=<string> to specify the autorest.core version